3.5 stars

It all begins with a body.

Vilhelm Thygesen is a lawyer who used to be a cop so when he finds a frozen young woman in his garden, he knows the drill. One phone call brings DCI’s Arve Stribolt & Vanja Vaage to his door & they’d love nothing better than to nail him for the crime. Twenty-five years ago he left the force in disgrace after being charged with murder.

Meanwhile, Terje Kykkelsrud & Oystein Strand meet up at an abandoned cabin outside Oslo. Strand is keen to celebrate his release from prison with every substance he can get his hands on but Terje has something a little more serious on his mind. Both belong to the Seven Samurai MC & apparently there’s a rat in their midst.

MP Gerhard Ryland is in a spot of trouble. Someone is blackmailing him & unless he comes up with a whack of cash, the media will hear of his ties to a young woman recently found dead in the garden of a notorious lawyer.

As Arve & Vanja struggle with the case, the story lines above play out in different spots in & around Oslo. Gradually they begin to weave together as hidden links & secret agendas are revealed. Events from each character’s past come back to haunt them & when another body appears, things only get more complicated for the cops.

This is definitely Scandi noir & those looking to be spoon fed will be disappointed. The reader is privy to everything that is happening as they travel with each character in alternate chapters. Still, the identity of the victim & why she was murdered came as a shock when all was said & done.

Of all the characters, I found Vilhelm the most interesting. He’s a world weary guy who’s tried to pick up the pieces from his past & live a quiet life. You get the feeling he actually enjoys his frequent sparring sessions with Vanja. But there’s something elusive about him that makes you wonder if he knows more than he’s telling.

My only quibble is some of the dialogue was difficult to understand. I read a lot of translations & expect to run into idioms/phrases that are unfamiliar & miss a bit of subtext. But there were whole sections, particularly during the initial meeting between Strand & Terje, where I had no clue what they were saying. Despite translation by the amazing Don Bartlett, I couldn’t grasp what they were talking about & it was only later that I could look back & understand what transpired.

It’s still an intricate & well plotted story that keeps you guessing. There are some unpredictable little twists along the way & I enjoyed how all the pieces finally fit together. Kudos to those responsible for creating such a striking cover. It certainly caught my eye.

In what may be a case of mistaken identity, a woman is murdered and dumped in the garden of a shady lawyer. We're given a fairly decent bundle of clues as to who did it, but the why remains to be seen.

The book starts off with a bang, but bogs down after the first handful of chapters. Only once the reader is aware that the book may be reaching its climax does the pace pick up again. Another obstacle for me was the introduction of so many key figures throughout the book, and trying to juggle the two dozen Norwegian names was trying for me. I don't recall having this issue with other Norwegian thrillers, but for some reason, in this one, I had a hard time keeping the characters straight in my head.

I will also fault the translator in somewhat, because the translator's job is to do more than translate: there were a few jokes that probably fell flat because the wordplay didn't bridge the languages. A good editor would have made suggestions to correct this.

Overall, an entertaining read, but at times it felt like a chore. 3.5 stars. There's a reason it's not gotten any 5-star reviews on Amazon.

I really tried with this book but i couldn't relate to the characters nor get their names in my head correct to understand what the heck was going on. I gave up early on.

3.5 stars
This was an interesting police procedural, set in Norway and Sweden. A body turns up in the garden of a shady lawyer and ex cop Vilhelm Thygesen. He calls the police and two Kripos DCIs, Vanja Vaage and Arve Stribolt. come to investigate. While more people die, the violence is not graphic and the two police inspectors work through clues painstakingly figuring out what happened. Since some of the bad guys are revealed early on, the mystery is how the two police inspectors solve the crime. I would call it a cerebral mystery. I thought that the translation was excellent.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this book.

Review: The Frozen Woman by Jon Michelet Publisher: No Exit Press (21st Sept 2017)
 
ISBN-13: 978-1843442929Source: Real ReadersRating: 2*
 
Synopsis:
In the depths of the Norwegian winter, a woman s frozen corpse is discovered in the garden of a notorious ex-lawyer, Vilhelm Thygesen. She has been stabbed to death.
A young biker, a member of a gang once represented by the lawyer, is found dead in suspicious circumstances.
Thygesen starts receiving anonymous threats, and becomes ensnared in a web of violence, crime and blackmail that spreads across Northern Europe.
Does the frozen woman hold the key?
 
Review:
I have lost count of the number of times I have picked up The Frozen Woman over the past several weeks. Usually, I really enjoy nordic crime thrillers, and this has twice won Norway's best crime novel, so there is no reason that I should not thoroughly enjoy it. I just could not get into it. At my last attempt, I got about 40% in, and then just completely lost interest again. I persevered more than I normally would if I had bought the book rather than had been given it to review, but alas, it was not for me. Thank you to the nudge team for providing a copy for me to review via Real Readers.

I really tried with this book but i couldn't relate to the characters nor get their names in my head correct to understand what the heck was going on. I gave up early on.

A body! That's how it starts a frozen body in a garden. I was intrigued! The cover of this book remind me of the "Encino Man" movie. This book feels like it was translated from a different language and the book had it's good moments, the story started great for me. But I was a little lost in the middle of the book. I just lost interest in finding out what would happen next and I'm not sure if it was because I feel like the translation part of the book is not coming through to me or not. I think this author is very skilled at writing a great thriller but I didn't get it in this book. This book in the end did not catch me as much as the cover did. * I received this book from Netgalley and this is my honest review*

I would say this is a good story lost in translation and cultural differences. A young woman in found dead and frozen in a man's yard and the Norwegian police try to find her killer. Interspersed with the actual detective work are random discussions regarding things that have no bearing on the case or the characters in the book. This, along with a translation that resulted in some ungainly sentences, made the story somewhat difficult to follow. On the other hand, some characters and situations weren't fully explained. Perhaps this is another victim of cultural differences? All that aside, it was an interesting and well thought out concept, it just suffered in presentation.

A copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and Old Castle Books in exchange for an honest review.

I'm having no luck! It's not often I DNF a book, but I just could not connect with The Frozen Woman at all. And I usually love my Scandinavian crime fiction, but for some reason this one did not hit the mark for me.